Poll: Would life be worth living without memory?

[Brotherofwill]

We've all been there: You play a game for a couple of hours and your machine crashes. Ofcourse you haven't saved, so what do you do? Never play it again. It's intersting to note that games aren't very worthwhile unless you can save your progress, similarly speaking: would life be?

So, if you couldn't remember any of your daily events or achievements from memory loss or short time memory, would it still be worth to live day after day for you?

 

[flaming_squirrel]

Well I suppose that depends on whether you are conscious of this memory loss or not.

 

[WestMountain]

Wouldn't it be like dying over and over again but without physical pain?

And it would be kind of cruel to put your future "You's" in the same position over and over, you guys know what I'm saying?

 

[DazZ.]

Depends on the type, if you had about a weeks memory you could be OK.

But if it was like an hour or so then it could get very difficult, but you would be excited about all the new stuff happening all the time. Still worth it though.

 

[Brotherofwill]

Not at all. Life is all about contrasts. It's impossible to have fun without knowing what total boredom feels like, and vice versa.

I don't think I could bear it. I might actually kill myself in such a situation, as Terry Pratchett is planning to do I believe.

Good point.

Terry Pratchett??? Noooooo! Didn't know he had memory loss.

 

[Kollega]

No. I seriously doubt it. Who am i if i can't even know who am i?

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

No. Life would not be life without knowing we are alive.
Intelligence wouldn't exist, so we'd just be savages.
Rather death than life without memory, and therefore intelligence.

 

[Brotherofwill]

Depends on the type, if you had about a weeks memory you could be OK.

But if it was like an hour or so then it could get very difficult, but you would be excited about all the new stuff happening all the time. Still worth it though.

I agree, even if you only had a minimal time frame it would still be worth it. Maybe I'm just an optimist but you could make it work I think.

 

[Tartarga]

I once read something in which one of the characters would lose all of his memorys every day, and then fall in love with his wife again everyday. It was really emotional and didnt have a happy ending but still a good story, I'll try to remember what its called if anyones iterested. OT: I don't think I would mind losing my memory like that. Every day would be a new adventure.

 

[Fraught]

Not at all. Life is all about contrasts. It's impossible to have fun without knowing what total boredom feels like, and vice versa.

I don't think I could bear it. I might actually kill myself in such a situation, as Terry Pratchett is planning to do I believe.

I didn't think of that. 'Impossible to have fun without knowing what total boredom feels like', eh?

Anyway, no. I wouldn't remember any of my friends (if I could get any at all) or my family, no one could rely on me, I couldn't get a job anywhere, and I wouldn't really have the urge to do something fun with someone if I didn't have any previous memory of them. They're all strangers to me that way.

Oh, and I wouldn't even know the Escapist existed, as soon as I'd leave it.

So yeah, I imagine it would suck, so I picked 'No'. I can't see how anyone could pick anything else.

 

[Brotherofwill]

Good point.

Terry Pratchett??? Noooooo! Didn't know he had memory loss.

Alzheimers actually. Terrible shame for a man with such an imagination. I believe he's just applied to a British court volunteering as a test case for assisted suicide.

You're right that is a damn shame, his books always made me laugh through their obscurity and randomness. Interesting to see how that works out, I believe assisted suuicide is only legal in Holland, although I'm not sure. So if he (a man with this amount of humour) thinks it's not worth it, that raises some interesting implications.

 

[Brotherofwill]

yeah, then I could forget about all my irrational fears like zombies and my new one the slender man

Slender man?

 

[The Unskilled78]

If it was only events I forgot, I could live with it. I couldn't bear to live without procedural memories.

 

[yoshimickster]

For me it would depend on what memories. I just hope I don't end up like Johnny Mnemonic. Not that I wouldn't mind being a data carrier, it's just that I don't want to be in any way like Keanu Reeves.

 

[InquisitorRaekan]

I guess it depends. If you lose your memories then would you even notice? and if you notice would you remember long enough to even do anything about it? but in a more serious note, no it wouldn't be worth living. Life is about experiences both awful and glorious, if you can't recall anything from the past 6 years of your life then you lost all that worldly experience.

 

[AvsJoe]

Nope. I couldn't live my life in some sort of Memento/50 First Dates scenario. Sorry but hell no.